Bliss
'' |image= |series= |production=40840-209 |producer(s)= |story= Bill Prady |script= Robert J. Doherty |director=Cliff Bole |imdbref=tt0708857 |guests=Scarlett Pomers as Naomi Wildman, W. Morgan Sheppard as Qatai and Marva Hicks as T'Pel |previous_production=The Fight |next_production=The Disease |episode=VGR S05E14 |airdate=10 February 1999 |previous_release=(VGR) Gravity (Overall) The Emperor's New Cloak |next_release=(VGR) Dark Frontier Part 1 (Overall) Field of Fire |story_date(s)=52542.3 (2375) |previous_story= Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges Field of Fire |next_story= Penumbra Chimera }} Summary Seven of Nine returns from a survey to find the crew has discovered what they think is a wormhole leading to Earth. A probe detects Starfleet signals containing letters full of good news to the crew. Although sensors detect erratic neutrino levels in the wormhole, Starfleet says the flux is unimportant. Suspicious of everyone's unfettered optimism despite signs the anomaly may not be all it appears to be, Seven accesses Janeway's logs. At first the captain reports that scans determined the wormhole was a deception, but in supplemental logs, Janeway suddenly believes it is real. When Seven locates an alien vessel in the wormhole not detected by Voyager's sensors, she hails it. The alien, Qatai, warns her that her ship is being deceived, but they are cut off when Janeway routes power from the lab to another system. When Naomi Wildman tells her everyone is acting strangely, Seven realizes they are the only two unaffected by whatever is manipulating the crew. Soon, the crew is ordered by Starfleet to take the Doctor off-line to avoid system interference, and to put Seven in stasis to avoid attracting Borg attention while Voyager passes through the wormhole. As Chakotay escorts Seven to her alcove, she tricks him and erects a forcefield to contain him. With Naomi's help, she keeps security at bay while she transports to Engineering and stuns Torres with a phaser. After erecting another forcefield, Seven attempts to shut down the impulse drive to keep Voyager from entering the wormhole. However, Janeway transmits a surge to the engineering console that knocks Seven out. Once they enter the anomaly, the crew is unconscious. When Naomi wakes Seven, the two hail Qatai and convince him to beam aboard. He explains the crew has been a victim of psychogenic manipulation. They are inside a bio-plasmic organism, a beast that consumes starships by telepathically preying on their crews' desires. Qatai has been trying for years to destroy the creature, not always successful at evading its deceptions. After activating the Doctor's program, Seven informs him that Voyager is being devoured in the digestive chamber of the organism. Realizing that bodies are designed to expel foreign objects, they plan to fire one of Qatai's tetryon-based weapons at a pocket of antimatter released from Voyager's warp core. It creates an unpleasant reaction that causes the beast to expel the two ships through its oesophagus. Once Janeway and the others regain consciousness, Voyager resumes its course to the Alpha Quadrant, but Qatai returns to the beast, obsessed with defeating it. Errors and Explanations Nit Central # Corey Hines on Wednesday, February 10, 1999 - 7:02 pm: So all 7o9 needs to do is pull out one chip and she has access to the captain's logs. She is obviously using the knowledge and experience of all the engineers assimilated by the Borg while she was part of the Collective. # Paris begins naming off Cardassians, Romulans, and Ferengi that they have to put up with. It seems they forget that there's a war on with the Dominion.Ultratrekker on Wednesday, February 10, 1999 - 9:43 pm: Remember they were zapped in the delta quadrant years before the war started they don't know about it! Brian Lombard on Thursday, February 11, 1999 - 6:05 am: Ultratrekker, remember that the Doctor went home in Message in a Bottle, and was informed of the war with the Dominion. Steve Oostrom on Thursday, February 11, 1999 - 9:53 pm: Several have mentioned that when Paris mentions the aliens that they can "experience" again in the Alpha Quadrant, he does not mention the Dominion. Of course, in Message in a Bottle, the Doctor learns of the Dominion war, but the Voyager crew has little or no experience with the Dominion and so does not think of them too much. ' # ''Tony Trimboli on Thursday, February 11, 1999 - 11:47 am: I'm not sure that I caught the explanation of why 7 & Naomi were not influenced by the alien. 1. They were all in the shuttle together, a plot device used by TNG a few times, then how come Tom Proton was influenced? 2. 7's swiss army knife, excuse me, borg implants. Then how come Naomi wasn't influenced? 3. Since she was influenced towards the end when they were escaping, why wasn't she influenced sooner? Of course the fact that she was influenced eventually means that the borg-o-matic implants didn't help, and the being away in the shuttle didn't work. If any other nitpickers can shed some light on why she wasn't influenced I'd like to hear it, otherwise I think there is a major nit here. ''Dwmarch on Thursday, February 11, 1999 - 12:18 pm:I thought it was because of her Dad's heritage. I'm not sure what race he is, one of the obscure ones mentioned on TNG once or twice. Maybe that was why. They never said so in the ep, but I think it's possible. Or perhaps she's too young? ''Sharon Jordan on Thursday, February 11, 1999 - 12:53 pm: Noami being only eight, would only be comfortable with what she only knows. Not getting excited about meeting people you haven't met before is understandable. It seems Neelix is getting to be the perfect father figure for her, so getting home and reuniting with her father would take him away, and she didn't like that. That is why she isn't effected. She likes the world she is used to to stay the way it is. Paul Golba on Thursday, February 11, 1999 - 3:09 pm: I think I have a logical anti-nit explanation why Seven and Naomi were not originally affected by Moby (the creature). The creature wants its victims to voluntarily enter into its stomach, so it needs to create illusions that will fool as much of the crew as possible (preferrably 100%). If he leaves too many individuals free, they can thwart Moby. And from what we know, it may only be able to create one unified illusion (the wormhole to Earth, paradise world for the aliens, etc.) which it can then tailor to each individual member of the crew. The problem becomes that Seven, Naomi and Paris were not on the ship when the creature starts creating the illusion. The wormhole to Earth illusion is perfect for the original crew but not for the newcomers. While Paris has the same desires as the rest of the crew, Seven (uncomfortable going "home") and Naomi (who doesn't want to leave the only home she has known and may be nervous about meeting her father) do not. Hence the grand illusion won't work on them, even though it apparently tried (letter from Seven's sister). If the two had been on board before contact, Moby may have used another more universal illusion to attempt to incorporate these two individuals, but at this point it is too late. So it attempts to compensate by getting them out of the way. However, once the rest of the crew is in La-La Land (except for Neelix who is in Mega-La-La Land), it is possible that they will stay that way indefintely, so Moby can change its focus on those still conscious. Since the alien is near immune, Naomi is not a threat and the Doc is not biological, it goes after Seven as the logical target. Also, remember that Moby here is apparently not a sentient but a dumb animal working on well developed instinct. It may have had serious problems dealing with the Borg implants until it finally came up with something that worked through trial and error. Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Friday, March 05, 2010 - 8:47 am:''Why don't they kill it? It's just like the crystaline entity. This thing is trying to eat Voyager it will continue to eat countless other ships and they decide as long as they're safe they just let it go. Just like the crystaline entity at the end of Datalore. ''Andrew Gilbertson (Zarm_rkeeg) on Friday, March 05, 2010 - 12:53 pm: Which... when they re-encountered, Picard and his Starfleet crew were against killing, and only the actions of a rogue civilian caused it's death. So clearly, it's a 'Starfleet' thing. :-) Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 8:51 pm: Yeah tell me about it, the rouge civilian would be a hero to the federation. Can you imagine if a sea monster had been killing millions of people for 5 years before the military finally did something about it and upon finding said monster they tried waving flags at it.''' Notes Category:Episodes Category:Voyager